Wife and Homemaker
Several days passed as Julia continued reordering her marriage, furthering the domination and control over her submissive, his old life fading into the past as she shaped and redefined him to her liking. For Julia, it had become surprisingly easy and natural to treat him with increasing disdain and cruelty with everything she did to him.
Eric glanced at the kitchen clock, worried, each minute bringing him closer to what he knew would be a difficult, likely humiliating evening. A guest was coming. Julia had invited her coworker Samantha home for dinner, a meal he was expected to cook and serve.
He had known for a few days, but it didn't make it any easier. If anything, it was more difficult. Julia's words, just a few nights before, were a painful reminder of how she felt about him. "I don't think it's too much to ask my wife to help support my career. I've given you plenty of notice. I even picked out the food already. The least you can do is prepare it. I don't expect complaints from you." With that, she had rejected all his concerns about playing hostess for the evening. He couldn't stop thinking about how dismissive and hurtful it had been, the word 'wife' being an especially cruel, unforgettable stab.
She had used the word several other times too, making certain to drill in his new status as her wife, making it clear she didn't think of him as a husband anymore, not even a man for that matter. It was a bitter pill to swallow but then everything had gotten worse after the tattoo. Being marked as her property had emboldened her to treat him like some lowly servant or maybe something even worse.
In addition to a growing list of household chores, nightly foot rubs had become routine. Shower duties had begun too. He had to bathe her, soaping her up in the shower and wiping her down with a large sponge while she moved under the falling water. Shampooing her long hair and massaging her scalp had quickly followed as did working in conditioners by carefully combing it into her wet, glistening mane. The last couple times she had him service her on his knees too, the shower pouring water over them as she twisted her hands in his hair, painfully directing his mouth to satisfy her lust. He'd simply been used for her pleasure with nothing offered in return. He wasn't even allowed to touch himself with the threat of being put in a cock cage if he dared.
It was during the last time he bathed her that she gave him another duty, one involving both of them, one that made him worry deeply about her future plans. He grimaced thinking about it then looked down at the red nail enamel and shinny top coat covering his nails, shaking his head in frustration, hardly believing she was doing this to him. With nail polish, they looked surprisingly and disturbingly feminine. He hated how girly they looked but needed to get used to it because, for now at least, Julia had ordered he do them daily, expecting him to learn how to do her nails by practicing on himself first!
He took a deep breath for courage, trying to think of it as just another task, fanning his fingers out, checking each nail for nicks or flaws. They weren't salon perfect by any means but after watching dozens of videos online and spending hours practicing they looked decent. He polished them per Julia's instructions after she left for work, after cleaning up the dishes from breakfast. All the layers were applied as required - under coat, nail color, and shiny top coat. They glistened a bright red, just like Julia's much longer, shaped nails did. Thinking on it, he couldn't recall a single day when Julia's sexy nails weren't some bright hue of red, just another detail she used to heighten her beauty and attractiveness, her sexual power.
Oddly, his own nails were giving rise to some peculiar, erotic feeling for some bizarre reason. He clenched his hands into tight fists and tried to dismiss the feeling but it persisted as he caught sight of his pretty thumbs. It was unnerving! He suddenly threw his hands down to his sides, out of sight, feeling ashamed. Was he getting turned on by his own polished nails or was it being forced by Julia to polish them!? Either way, it seemed shameful. He just wanted Julia to get home to inspect the work as soon as possible, only then was he allowed to remove the polish. He certainly didn't want fingers smelling like nail polish remover when Samantha arrived for dinner.
Upset, he retreated to his computer and just stared at it for a bit trying to clear his head, each heart beat throbbing at his temples, punctuating one dark thought after another. He powered up the computer and quickly jumped into his game, hoping to hide from the real world with all it's problems for a time, just like he had for so many months before Julia caught him in all the lies.
The moment his avatar came into view he smiled. He must have spent hundreds upon hundreds of hours playing as a muscle bound hero able to smite the enemies around him like gnats. If only the real world was so easy to master, he thought.
At first, the game seemed to be calming his jangled nerves, it was something else to focus on, a place where he was powerful and in control of the world around him. Dozens of foes were dispatched in a small number of key presses and mouse clicks, group after group, before he ran up to another group to repeat the carnage. He fell into the rhythm of the game for a time and everything was good. But it didn't last long. Worries and fears crept in slowly at first and began to take over. He couldn't stop from glancing down to his shiny, red nails either, finding them too difficult to reconcile with the manly avatar on the screen, it was distracting and annoying. After a bit, it was just too much to deal with entirely. He quit playing and exited the game, even more upset than before he started. He sat there for a time just staring at the screen, lamenting his situation, trying to puzzle out what to do next to make things better somehow. Then the screensaver winked in and his mouth dropped open.
To his horror, they were pictures of his tattoo! He was stunned! Julia! She must have put them there. Eric's face soured as one image after another slid into view, every picture Julia took had to be there! If she sent those pictures to friends or posted them online... He'd be a laughing stock!
Panicking, he slammed his fist into the keyboard to stop the slide show then stood up, chair flying back, ready to smash the monitor into the wall. He stood there trembling instead, feeling stupid and alone. Somehow, he had hoped things would get better, at least manageable - they weren't. He was in trouble, deep trouble.
Julia wasn't going to give up control, that was made very clear, but maybe she could be talked into being a tiny bit more reasonable, a little more compassionate. He had to try something. But, he didn't know how to even broach 'being reasonable' to Julia. He needed another perspective, new ideas, something...
Julia still had his cellphone but they had a home phone and he had contacts on the computer; it didn't take long to get the number. He didn't even want to consider how embarrassing and difficult the call would be. He took a deep breath trying to calm down. Desperation was closing in as rapidly as his old life was disappearing. Anything was worth trying.
He punched in the number, crossing his polished fingers for luck, as he tapped the last button, furrowing his brow as the line began ringing. His heart skipped a beat when his sister answered her phone.
"Julia, what can I do for you?" Emily answered cheerily.
For a moment the greeting startled him until he realized that Julia's name must have come up in caller ID. He felt all the more invisible and irrelevant, lost behind Julia's shadow.
"Em, it's me, Eric." His voice sounded a bit shaky.
"Eric?!" she said, sounding surprised.
"Yeah, Em. I'm... umm... at home... still at the apartment, on the... home phone," Eric said.
Emily didn't reply, only background noise from her office.
"Em? You there?" he asked. "You're not... mad at me are you?"
"What can I do for you little brother?" she asked simply after a couple long, uneasy seconds.
"Well, I... I'm sorry I hung up on you last time, Em. I was just-"
"That's fine. I'm not mad at you." she said stiffly, interrupting him. "Now, what can I do for you?"
"Well... it's just... EM," Eric started, more nervous than he thought he would be, "I need some advice... some help. I just..." His voice trailed off as he fought to stay calm.
"This is about Julia again, right?" she asked matter-of-factly.
Eric was silent, ashamed to admit how weak he had become.
"I appreciate that you feel you can come to me with your relationship issues, little brother, but honestly I'm not sure what I can do for you," Emily said. "For starters, it's clear you didn't take my advice last time you called me. Right? I told you to leave, didn't I?"
"Yes."
"But you didn't leave, did you?. You're still there, aren't you?" she asked rhetorically.
"Em... I... Yes. I'm still here, still with Julia," he said. "I tried to leave, really I did. I'd packed my bags and everything. I was ready to go. Then..."
"Then what? What happened?"